I'm pretty sure that we're headed this way already - the only real problem is all the ex-pat Cubans in Florida already that fled before Castro assumed power - which would be a large voting block and can actually get their voice heard on the national level... Give it time - we'll export capitalism there and screw them up just as bad as we are too :-)

I'm pretty sure that we're headed this way already - the only real problem is all the ex-pat Cubans in Florida already that fled before Castro assumed power - which would be a large voting block and can actually get their voice heard on the national level... Give it time - we'll export capitalism there and screw them up just as bad as we are too :-)

Amazing to me that we still let bureaucrats in Washington decide who we can and cannot do business with...

And of course, the only real reason the embargo still exists is, as someone said, all the expatriate Cubans that are very politically active whose purpose in life seems to be to remind everyone regularly that Castro is a son-of-a-bitch.

(I had a Cuban friend when I lived in L.A., and it was always interesting being at family gatherings with him when the older relatives were there...)

i have an overall sense that a vast majority of you belong to the NRA... and also have only high school educations...

I actually did attend four years of indoctrination camp, er, I mean university. I guess all that liberal brainwashing just didn't stick. I'm probably too stupid to understand the beauty of socialism (and socialism's ultimate goal of communism). I kept getting hung up on little things like reality, so I couldn't see the dream world all my college professors were living in.

i have an overall sense that a vast majority of you belong to the NRA... and also have only high school educations...

I actually did attend four years of indoctrination camp, er, I mean university. I guess all that liberal brainwashing just didn't stick. I'm probably too stupid to understand the beauty of socialism (and socialism's ultimate goal of communism). I kept getting hung up on little things like reality, so I couldn't see the dream world all my college professors were living in.

But, I bet the weather is awesome in the land of make believe!

You realize that the idea of communism is actually a great idea in theory, it just never works in practice, because human nature doesn't allow it to happen. Karl Marx argued that communism would be the eventual evolution, I can never see it happening not the way people behave. As an example, and I don't mean to insinuate everyone is like this, but there were reports that homeless people were coming into the Occupy Wallstreet movement for a free meal, after a short time the occupy wallstreet group decided they wouldn't feed the homeless anymore because it was "theirs" for the members of the movement. This is human nature at work.

I'm the kind of guy willing to give you the shirt off his back if you need it, but you need to want to help yourself too and not just want a handout, that doesn't fly with me. Too many out there just want the hand out. To be honest I find this a sad state of affairs, but the group that seems to grow the most is people who think they are entitled to certain things. This could open another discussion, and I don't want to hijack it too much, but this problem is as pretty much as old as civilization. It was one of the Roman philosophers that said (paraphrasing) Democracy works until the population realizes they can vote themselves money from the public coffers.

Oh, most definitely lift the embargo. At this point it's merely an embarrassment to our national policy, maintained pretty much just for the status quo. (And having an embargo like it emphasizes military control of the Latin America region. See "Monroe Doctrine".)

But still there are very solid reasons to life the embargo.

-Economic Gain. The fact is that we would be one of Cuba's major trading partner, second only to Venezuela. We're simply that big, with that much capital to invest, and we're that available. Regardless of left-over anger towards us, economic realpolitik says that yeah, we'll get a lot of extra trade back and forth. Win-Win for all.

-Morality. At this point it's simply petty and a bit evil to keep the policy in place. It does not help us, it harms the economic development of the Cuban people, and it is not furthering the overall cause to overthrow communism in the island state.

-Cold-blooded Scheming. At this point, Fidel is largely gone, his brother is more shaky, and a sudden lift of the embargo with immediate introduction of things like cell towers and the Internet would mean a "Latin Spring" faster than you can say Twitter.

-Foreign Relations Boost. Yes, if the embargo is lifted everybody will complain for a bit that the United States had it in place in the first place. But immediately after that, any administration who makes the change will be able to tout their democratic virtues, commitment to International Law, yada yada etc. ad nauseam. It's good politics.

And I have an overall sense that bob_titol is a big doo-doo head who hasn't figured out how to have a civilized discussion. :-D Just sayin'.